My Trick or Treater (kind of)

OK - Nicole really isn't going trick or treating for Halloween, but she did dress up for work on Friday. At her work they did have a little costume competition and she got 2nd place. We are so proud. Can you tell who she is? For those that need a little hint - think commercial (insurance), and she wouldn't appreciate it if you guessed Geigo Gecko. :)

Adventures along the side the Freeway

Our adventure started Friday night when Nicole and I went to visit our good friends on the other side of the mountains.
We left a little later than we wanted, but it gave a chance for Seattle traffic to clear, and we would still get there before it was to late. We were making good time and figured we should be arrive just a little past 10:00PM.
Then we heard and felt a weird sound like when you ride on the bumps on the side of the freeway,but I knew I wasn't near those bumps.
Then a thought came to my mind - maybe it's a flat tire. Quickly I tried to recall the last time I had a flat tire and is this the familiar feeling and sound? Ah yes, you better get to the side of the road so you don't completely ruin the tire.
I managed to get the car to the side of the freeway, and Nicole made the assessment of the situation and confirms our suspicion and it was a flat tire.
Nicole having experience with road side emergencies, and immediately indicated we needed to call AAA and have them come and change our tire(boy am I glad we just renewed our membership). That was a perfect idea because I was a little fearful about laying on the side of a freeway changing a tire in the dark in the middle of nowhere.
Not to mention it has been a long time since I have changed a tire and didn't know if I would be able get the lug nuts off.
We made the call and was told that assistance would be there within an hour and to call back if they weren't there in an hour.
Good news it was a full moon and so it wasn't pitch dark, bad news crazies come out. Ok - we didn't have any crazies stop by, but we did have a older man in a mini van with lots of his possessions on top of his van to check to see if we needed help. We told him that AAA has been called and that they should be here anytime and the nice man was on his way.
What do you do when you are on the side of I-90 in the dark? Nicole and I watched the road kill carcass moving down the road with each passing semi, and Nicole had her I-Pod and we watched Alvin the Chipmunks sharing the earphones. We did have to remember that we couldn't move our heads to far apart or the earphone would fall out.
When the hour passed and our help still wasn't there, we called again. Now - I needed to give them more specific directions - "hello we are in the dark" and no, I don't see a mile marker. Yes I do see some wind turbines because they have red blinking lights on them. I know that I am close to Vantage, but not exactly sure how far it is.
Then I see the tow truck in my rear view mirror with the flashing red lights. Yay! He found us!
Jessie the tow truck driver made the tire change in less 5 mins., actually the paperwork took longer than the actual tire change.
We were back on the road again! We finally made it to Deb's about midnight a few hours delay safe and sound.

She is moving....

Back home! We are so excited for her to be moving back to Washington.

I will be flying down to Las Vegas and driving back with her. Did I mention that we are so glad to have her closer?

29 Years and Counting

Can you believe that Rayme and I have been married for 29 years?
About a week before our anniversary, Rayme and I were reminiscing about our years together and then Rayme says "what does someone do for their 29th wedding anniversary?". My response was probably go out to dinner.
What really happened for our anniversary is we visited with my Aunts, Uncles and cousins since they were in town visiting. It seemed appropriate since they were all there celebrating our wedding 29 years earlier. To top off our anniversary we all went to Dairy Queen and enjoyed the blizzards (and there was a special on blizzard - buy 1 get the 2nd for .25).
I am so grateful that I made the decision to marry the greatest guy in the world (at such a young age:) )

Memories of Grandma(s)

I have been very fortunate to have 4 Grandma's in my life. You may ask how can she really have 4 Grandma's?

There is my Great Grandma Small or as everyone called her Grammy she was my Dad's Grandma and she lived until her mid 90's. She was was able to welcome her 10th Great, Great Grandchild (Nicole) before she passed away. She lived down the long driveway behind my parents home.
Then there was my Dad's Mom (Grammy's daughter) she too lived until her 90's and lived just down the road from us so we had lots of time to visit, learn and enjoyed each other. Both Grammy and Grandma Lee were single Mothers and were hard working women.
Still on my Dad's side of the family, since my Grandpa got remarried I had yes another Grandma Lee, but to make sure we didn't confuse us we called her Grandma Eva. I remembering going to visit my Grandpa Lee and Grandma Eva almost every Summer. Playing cards was a highlight and I got to ride my bike in the city. Shortly after we got married my Grandma Eva passed away.
The picture above is my Grandma McConnell. She is my Mom's Mum (I thought I should refer to her as my Mom would).
As with my other Grandma's I had a wonderful relationship with her. There is lots memories that are flooding my memory now. Saturday I had the opportunity to be able to say farewell to her. It was a sweet time to seat by her side, stroke her hand and was able to let her know how much I loved and appreciated her. Later that night I got the called that Grandma passed away.
Grandma loved her tabloids and I remember our conversation when I told her that the articles are fabricated. Her response was "they wouldn't print it if it wasn't true". Grandma did have a tendency to be a little naive (now you know where I got it).
Grandma's house was the gathering place, since most of her children lived out of town that made it convenient for all. But it wasn't limited to her children and grandchildren, it was open to all.
When I was in school I always like to tell my friends that I went to visit my Grandparents in Canada. Little did they know that they only live about 25 miles away.
She was wonderful example, she never spoke unkindly about anyone, she was a wonderful hostess always making sure all had cookies, a snack and coffee, tea or some kind of beverage. It was a little difficult when I was trying to watch my weight, I really thought she was determined to make sure I didn't go home without a cookie or snack.
Oh, how I treasure these memories and feel so blessed to have the influences of these wonderful women.
I am grateful that I know that I will be reunited with them someday.

It not the destintation it's the journey......

****Warning Long Post*****

Our journey started while the girls were home for a long weekend. First stop was visiting the Vancouver LDS Open House.

Played games, visited and cleaned out the front hall closet (this is the closet with all the coats that belong to everyone and didn't want to get rid of perfectly good coats without approval of all involved).

Then Nicole and Rayme flew to Las Vegas for Nicole to go back to work and Rayme to attend training. But they can't leave without Michelle and me, so we joined them in Las Vegas the next day.

We usually are not the typical Las Vegas tourist, but this time we did some of the tourist attractions. We walked the strip to enjoy the bright lights and the different hotel attractions (interesting place to people watch). The Mirage Hotel has the volcano action going on (which is kind of funny since a real volcano was raising such a ruckus in the other parts of the world.)

Watched the fountains at the Bellagio and the beautiful flower displays.

Since the Country Music Awards were in Las Vegas, a free concert was offered on Freemont Street. We got there to claim our spots to watch some of the country music favorites. Ok - I need to admit I really do like a wide variety of music, but I am not the best at knowing band names or names of songs, etc. So when our friends and the girls were talking about the well known bands and artist playing I really didn't have a clue. The girls assured me that I would know who they were and would start singing the songs until I would recognize them. As you can see from the pictures there quite a few people there. Did I mention that we stood there for a long time and all the while trying to keep our flip flops from be permanently fixed to the ground. The bands we saw were Emily West, Danny Gokey and Lady Antebellum. As you can see we were pretty close.

On to our next adventure to the West Rim of the Grand Canyon. Now we were warned that we would have to venture down some gravel road, so we weren't to surprise that the sign pointed down the gravel road. What we didn't know is that we missed the turn and took the long way there (we called it the scenic route). This side of the Grand Canyon has the glass walkway to goes over the canyon. (Just for the record the blonde in the picture is Heidi - Nicole best friend.)

It's not the destination it is all about the Journey.

The Girls are on their way....

Home!!

Michelle called is at the airport waiting for her airplane.
Nicole called too and is at the airport waiting for her airplane.
Michelle called again and now is at the Boise airport ready to get on her next connection. Only to get to Seattle and another connection. Hopefully her luggage will make all the connections too.
Waiting, waiting....getting more excited for the girls to get home.
We are so blessed to be able to travel by fast moving airplanes, and that we live so close to the airport that it doesn't matter that I get to go there twice in just a few hours because I get to see my girls!
As a family we plan to attend the Open House for the LDS Vancouver Temple. That is another blessing we are very excited about too. Blessings everywhere.